Merfolk Cave-Diver

Merfolk Cave-Diver card image

Merfolk Cave-Diver: Creature - Merfolk Scout, The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. MTG card printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.

Mana cost
{2}{U}
Mana value
3
Type
Creature - Merfolk Scout
Colour identity
Blue (U)
Power / toughness
2/4
Rarity
Uncommon
Set
The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI)
Released
2023-11-17
Collector number
65
Artist
Fesbra
Commander rank
9,723 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
Keywords
Explore

Build around this card with Grover

About Merfolk Cave-Diver

Merfolk Cave-Diver is a Magic: The Gathering card, an uncommon blue creature from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan (LCI), an expansion set released in November 2023. It is collector number 65 in that set, with art by Fesbra. It costs {2}{U} (two generic and one blue mana) to cast, for a mana value of 3. It is a 2/4 creature. Its colour identity is blue. It is legal in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander, Oathbreaker, Brawl, Standard Brawl, Historic, Timeless, Gladiator and Penny Dreadful. The Lost Caverns of Ixalan is its only printing so far. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $0.19 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-12).

Card text

Whenever a creature you control explores, this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn and can't be blocked this turn.

"Learn all you can of this underground sea. I suspect more secrets of our ancestors lie waiting in its depths." -Tishana

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.19 (as of 2026-11-12).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Merfolk Cave-Diver by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

StandardLegal
PioneerLegal
ModernLegal
LegacyLegal
VintageLegal
CommanderLegal
Duel CommanderLegal
OathbreakerLegal
BrawlLegal
Standard BrawlLegal
HistoricLegal
TimelessLegal
GladiatorLegal
Penny DreadfulLegal

Official rulings

Seven official rulings apply to Merfolk Cave-Diver, newest first.

  • If an ability instructs a creature to explore, its controller reveals the top card of their library. If it's a land card, they'll put it into their hand. Otherwise, they'll put a +1/+1 counter on that creature, then choose to either leave that card on top of their library or put it into their graveyard.
  • If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to explore but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still explores. If you reveal a nonland card this way, you won't put a +1/+1 counter on anything, but you may put the revealed card into your graveyard. Effects that trigger "whenever a creature explores" trigger as appropriate.
  • In some unusual cases, noncreature permanents may explore. For example, if the creature card returned by Defossilize is somehow not a creature once it's on the battlefield, it can still explore. You'll take all the same actions, and you may end up putting a +1/+1 counter on the permanent. (Note that some effects target a creature, and those effects would still require a legal target to have it explore.)
  • If a creature leaves the battlefield before an effect instructs it to explore, it still explores. Abilities like Merfolk Cave-Diver's that trigger whenever a creature you control explores will still trigger.
  • Once an ability that causes a creature to explore begins to resolve, no player may take any other actions until it's done. Notably, opponents can't try to remove the exploring creature after you reveal a nonland card but before it receives a counter.
  • Some spells or abilities might cause a creature to explore multiple times in a row. If you reveal a nonland card when a creature explores and leave it on top of your library, then the creature explores again immediately afterwards, you'll reveal the same card again.
  • If no card is revealed, most likely because that player's library is empty, the exploring creature receives a +1/+1 counter.

Similar cards

Other creature cards with a blue colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

In these precons

Merfolk Cave-Diver is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.

Mentioned in these guides

These guides mention Merfolk Cave-Diver.

Explore Mana Grove